A first wave had hit his boat broadside, sending water swirling around the ankles of Ken, LeSieutre, Hess, and Fredenburg. Before they’d had the chance to react a second breaker followed the watery trail laid by the first, effectively swamping the canoe. Only the tapered points on the bow and the stern poked above the lake’s surface, and some of their gear was now bobbing freely in the water.
Everyone sat in three feet of icy water with their feet looped into the gunwales to keep themselves from floating away. For each scoop of water the men were able to bail out, another wave pushed it all back in. To make matters worse, Hess was wearing a heavy plaster cast on one leg to protect his foot, which he’d broken only a week earlier when he slipped on some rocks. He’d continued in the canoes because there hadn’t been any upcoming portages planned, and paddling didn’t require much lower body movement. But now the cast had suddenly become a liability. Leaning back as far as possible to hold his leg above the water, Hess considered what would happen if their canoe sank beneath him. The cast would sponge up the water and he’d plummet like a rock to the bottom.
For the most part, Hess hadn’t doubted his decision to come on the journey. He loved being outside with a group of friends, camping and canoeing everyday. But until this point, his life had never been on the line. He’d had blisters and aches like everyone else, and there had been that minor eye injury after a piece of tinder flew into his face, and the stress fracture in his foot was a bit of a nuisance, but nothing serious had happened. Nothing that might prevent him from returning home to a normal 20th-century life at the end of the expedition. Now he was facing his imminent mortality, in the form of drowning or hypothermia. Neither was very appealing.
“Hey! We’re sinking!” Ken bellowed into the wind again, trying to get the attention of the other canoes, which repositioned to flank the listing boat on all sides.
“Yellow pants keeping you dry?” Cox joked as the five canoes inched toward shore, referring to the foul weather gear some of the men wore under their outfits on rough weather days.
The four men in the submerged boat could hardly spare the energy to laugh. They continued bailing and paddling with grim determination. Hess lay almost flat on his back with his cast straight up in the air like a flag. It would’ve been comedic if the situation weren’t so grave. The cold water soaked into their wool clothes and froze their limbs. If the men weren’t warmed quickly the first symptoms of hypothermia would set in.
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